HOMESTYLES OF THE RICH & GATED

While married to publisher Robert Knittel, the two took residence in Switzerland during the eighty’s for about ten years before. Upon his death she returned to England. Luise continues…

LR Much more importantly, I always lived in what I personally felt was the best and in very good taste, which is essential to me. Extreme luxury is not as important to me as living according to my own style. I chose England following my beloved husband’s death because, before Switzerland, we had lived in a beautiful home here, just around the corner, for twenty years, with a large circle of friends and I longed to be back. I also longed to be close to the theatre, exhibitions, films, though I did not think of making movies, and so many of the other inspiring things I had experienced here in England.

FB. What is the most important feature for you in a Home?
LR. Harmony.

FB What made you move to London?

LR I scouted America first and saw many beautiful places, especially near San Francisco. I could have found cheaper, better and far more luxurious. I love America. I love the Americans and their way of living. I do love luxury, though I never lived with more of it than I felt necessary. But I had moved to England in the mid fifties with my husband and daughter and we were very happy there.

One of Luise Rainer’s many talents is her art work. For many years, Miss Rainer has wielded her gift as a painter. Some of her work hangs from the walls of her working room.

FB Why did you stop painting?
LR I stopped because we moved from England to Switzerland. The landscape in Switzerland is very overwhelming. Very few people could really capture mountains. Cezanne always had one mountain which was the background in her paintings. I could have continued to paint people, but it was more important to me to create something of beauty out of the house we had moved to. I was able to create, out of a house which stood on the market for two years as no one knew what to do with it, a place which I was able transformed into a beautiful home that everyone admired.

FB What is your happiest moment.
LR Happiness is a very illusive thing. I would say when I was able to give someone happiness, possibly.

FB What films would you have like to do.
LR I would have like to do “Love Is A Many Splendid Thing”, “Madame Curie”. I had the idea of making a film out of the book “Out of Africa” long before it was made with Meryl Streep, but at the time ‘They’ did not think ‘it would work’. I love to do any film that has to do with real human beings and the development of thought of beings.

FB Your greatest fear?
LR I am strangely, by nature, pretty fearless. I would have to answer; bad people, dishonesty, disloyalty and disillusionment. Also I should add the errors that one has made. Most of all, I fear the negative that exists in human beings and in the many ways of the world. The connection between the two is like a malady.

What makes her sad in her near hundred years of life is the increasing emphasis on the material side of life and less emphasis on love. The saying, ‘Life is too short’ is one of Miss Rainer’s most disliked expressions. ‘Life is never too short for anything valid’.

Luise Rainer, with two back to back Academy Awards for best actress, is the last of the great legends.

With her large brown eyes that hold the wisdom of one who cannot be fooled, she has the frame of a delicate bird, the grace of a gazelle, and a magnetic strength that instinctively draws you to follow her lead. It is hard to believe that Miss Rainer is able to boast her ninety eight years and looking forward to her hundredth birthday in eighteen months. With her charm, I am led into her what she calls her ‘working room’. A room in her home overlooking, on one side, the roofs of London and the other the gardens of London’s Tony Belgravia.

She smiles as she takes in the surroundings of her ‘work room’. Wall to wall and ceilling to floor french windows open onto a balcony overlooking the sky and the roof tops of London. A large desk and sofa are flanked by a wall of first edition books, many signed, by the authors, to her. On the other two walls, hang examples of her talent as a painter. There are plaques and awards given her during the Second World War. Not to be missed, her two Oscars stand high on a shelf overlooking the room. She continues……

LR Harmony, to be very grand, to the soul and the eye. The visual is of great importance to me. I am living with wonderful, old antique furniture. I love wood, especially inlaid wood the way wood was carved two and three hundred years ago. All that gives me such joy. I never craved jewelry. I craved the beauty of furniture and furnishings. It is marvelous that I have that.

Miss Rainer’s home is filled with exquisite sixteenth and seventeenth century pieces, some inherited and many collected over the years. The walls are covered with equally precious art from the fourteenth century to modern day.

Light is also a crucial feature for Miss Rainer.

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LR Though it is outrageous to say, because it is such a luxury, I have never lived anywhere where I could not see the sky. The sky and the outside with the possibility of having your thoughts fly through the window so that the soul can be connected to all those marvelous things existing far beyond. I have never lived where I could not see that freedom, I mean a physical freedom of being able to fly through the windows into the sky and have the sky at night come down to meet me. That is very vital to me.

FB What do you like to see first thing in the morning?
LR. First of all I love to see peace first thing in the morning. I want to see the sky and the trees outside my bedroom window. I could sap up nature.

FB In which part of your house do you feel most inspired?
LR In my working room.

Once again I look around at her working desk surrounded by books, her paintings, photographs and so many awards and memorabilia awarded her for a multifaceted life of giving of herself to so many, not only as an artist but also a war veteran from the Second World Ward. And once again that important reason, she explains….

LR In my working room because the windows that I open towards the sky and the large books of people that I admire. There are so many painters, writers, artists and so much more that gives me joy.

I notice everything around is in complete order. That, Miss Rainer explains is what helps her clarity of thought. ‘Never clutter a room’, she says.

FB Who are you most proud of being admired by?
LR I don’t know if the word ‘proud’ is right. I was very happy when I had the good luck of being respected by those who seemed to be much more than I am. I always long for people who knew more than I did and especially the great ones who know more than I do. I have always loved and craved people. I have a need to absorb people’s knowledge. I love to find out about human beings. I love to discern what makes another person tick which brings me closer to that individual.

On Acting.

No acting school for Miss Rainer. Observation is the best learning tool for an actor. The rest comes to her naturally from within.

LR I love to find out about human beings. Again, having a feeling of them and discerning what makes them tick to bring me nearer to that person.

Miss Rainer continues….

I gave up film making because I used to be a very disturbed human being while I was in Hollywood. I was never conscious of success nor ever waited for success. I craved to be good, better and better. Success came accidentally by being as good as I could be. To get out of myself the best I could be. That was terribly important to me. In Hollywood, the Oscars, produced the material I was given later on. What was so important to me, also, were all the letters I got from so many knowledgeable people.

Some of Miss Rainer’s favorite Actors include; Jane Fonda, Julia Roberts and Jack Nicolson.

F.B What is your preferred manner of entertaining?

Her answer is; intelligent people, intelligent conversation and humor.

LR I never enjoyed large groups because in large groups most people are looking over the shoulder of those they are talking to, looking for another one to meet, therefore you fail to have the intimacy and understanding that you need when you are amongst many people.

FB What are you favorite colors in a home?
LR Crazy as it seems, I would say white. I like light colors, like sky blue, pale yellow and the pale pink salmon of the bedroom. I feel that a certain combination of colors are also important. People don’t know any more what new form to make something new and so the most hideous colors are of put together to make something new.

FB If you had not become an actress, what would you like to be?
LR I would have liked to study medicine in order to have the knowledge to discover what makes a human being ‘tick’, which means, what makes anything tick because we are all part of the ticking of the universe and that is what I would have like to be able to understand.
And so goes a small fraction sampling of the ‘ticking’ of this legendary human being. Luise Rainer, in the comfort of her beautiful home.

Written by Francesca Bowyer
All Photographs © & ® 2008 by Francesca Bowyer

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